Sir Temi Zammit Hall is not exactly Malta’s most inspiring performance venue.

This concert also amply demonstrated that there is more to music than Mozart and Beethoven- Alex Vella Gregory

The mixture of grey fitted carpet and wooden panelling give it a drab and dated feel. Therefore, it was far from the ideal venue for the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra’s Debutantes’ concert, especially considering the dull acoustics.

Right from the start, and by that I mean right from the moment the orchestra started tuning up, I could tell the musicians were not particularly comfortable with the acoustics on stage.

I also have very bad memories of the acoustics on that stage. So it was quite a feat for both soloists and orchestra to actually make this concert a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

Before one can comment about any of the six young soloists involved, one must bear in mind the raison d’etre of this concert. In what is perhaps one of the MPO’s most successful and worthy initiatives of recent years, young performers are given the priceless opportunity to perform with an orchestra. Therefore we are not looking at professionals, but aspiring professionals. This makes the six performers even more outstanding.

The evening opened with soprano Marvic Monreal, whose stage presence is more than matched by her voice. She has a wonderful dark quality to her voice, and an unusually powerful lower register for a soprano. She opened the evening with Lascia ch’io pianga from Handel’s Rinaldo, followed by Mozart’s Deh, vieni non tardar from Le Nozze di Figaro.

Both arias suit her well and, save for a few anglicised vowels, she delivered them clearly. With such a particular timbre, I suspect that her voice will soon grow out of such ‘light’ repertoire, and into darker heftier stuff.

Next up was the youngest musician of the group, violinist Pierre Louis Attard, who performed Beethoven’s Romance in F Op. 50. Attard has a very good control of the instrument, and a very musical approach to phrasing and bowing. What I felt was weak was his tone control, and very often his playing did not project a fully rounded sound.

Another interesting and powerful new voice is that of Arienne Gaerty. She performed Selva opaca from Rossini’s William Tell, and the Song to the Moon from Dvorak’s Rusalka. She delivered both arias with a lot of emotion.

She clearly has a very powerful and commanding voice, as was evident at the very end of the Song to the Moon, but there were times where nerves got in the way of clarity and projection. Other than that, she has a solid technique, and one cannot but laud her decision to sing the Dvorak aria in the original Czech.

The saxophone is not an instrument that is usually associated with classical music, but there are several notable classical works written for the instrument, including Glazunov’s Saxophone Concerto. Philip Attard’s interpretation of this work was one of the highlights of the evening. Not only does he have an impeccable technique, but he also has a musicality to match.

Facing a full orchestra is daunting in itself; facing it with such a delicate instrument as the flute requires extraordinary courage. Laura Cioffi does not seem to have had any such issues. Although, as with all the other performers, the acoustics certainly did not help, Laura managed to transmit a powerful performance.

It was also bold of her to choose such a relatively unknown work as Chaminade’s Concertino, and the gamble certainly paid off. It is an exquisite work that deserves to be heard.

The evening was rounded off by Maria Zahra performing Weber’s Bassoon Concerto. I thought it would have been difficult to top Philip Attard’s saxophone concerto, but she certainly matched his success.

Those of you who have seen and heard a bassoon know very well that it is not an instrument which one would immediately associate with elegance and lyricism. Maria’s performance did more than that; she made the instrument sing effortlessly, even in the heavy lower register.

With performance platforms for young musicians in Malta being so few and limited, such a concert not only highlights the importance of such events, but our obligation to all young professionals to develop and expose their talent.

It was also very heartening to have no pianists! Now I have nothing against pianists, but we do need to learn that there are more instruments around than just pianos and violins.

In much the same way, this concert also amply demonstrated that there is more to music than Mozart and Beethoven. It also shows that as a nation we owe a lot to the younger generation. Let us be worthy of their dreams.